I've got a 10.76 lb vacuum packed bone-in pork shoulder in the freezer that I've been wanting to smoke for a while. But finding a weekend with enough free time to babysit the smoker for 14 hours (or more) has been a challenge...and I keep forgetting to transfer it to the fridge for defrosting early in the week. So after doing a bit of reading I decided to get creative about it.
That's right...I'm gonna' sous vide Porky's butt. Not only that, I'm going to toss it into the bath straight from the freezer. Since it's already vac-packed I don't even need to do that. I got everything ready to go in the kitchen tonight, and just before I leave for work tomorrow morning I'll put the roast in the container, cover it in hot tap water and set the Anova to 165°F...and then leave it for 24-28 hours (depending on when the rain quits that's expected Saturday morning.) Then I'll cover it in rub and toss it into the smoker at 300°F for however long it takes to bring the internal temp to ~200°F, give or take.
I predict that this will either be a brilliant success or an unmitigated disaster...and nothing in between. My biggest concerns are that the meat won't hold together after that much time in the sous vide, or that there won't be enough time in the smoker to create any bark. But I'm hoping that the higher smoker temp will solve that problem.